Power of the Heart
by FrighteninglyConvenient
Summary: AU. What if things at the Devil's Nest had gone differently? What if someone else was there that day? This is the story of one of the chimeras in Greed's group of misfits and his survival of that day. Anime-verse. OC x Al.


**A/N:** Whoohoo! My first fic, and it's a Fullmetal Alchemist one. I hope the first chapter doesn't seem too rushed. I needed to do a bit of a back story for the introduction so everyone's not completely lost. If you haven't seen or read up to the Devil's Nest part, you might not really understand what's going on.

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Fullmetal Alchemist despite how many stars I've wished upon.

**Warnings: **Contains an **OC** and **slash**.

**Summary: AU.** What if things at the Devil's Nest had gone differently? What if someone else was there that day? This is the story of one of the chimeras in Greed's group of misfits and his survival of that day. **Anime-verse. OC x Al.**

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Chapter 1: My Story Begins

Where to start? I've never really told my story before, and I never really thought of myself as a good story teller. I guess I'll start with the basics.

My name is Brandon Vale, and I'm a panther chimera. I was once a part of Greed's group of freaks back in the day, but times have changed. I've changed.

I used to be such a weak fool.

Now not weak in strength, I had plenty of that, but weak in the heart. I'd always done everything for myself, and everyone else was a liability to me. The only one who had ever gained my respect was Greed. I would have done anything for him.

That man, or should I say homonculus, was a power to be reckoned with. He knew what he wanted and went for it. Screw the consequences! I still admire him for that.

But . . .

Recently, my opinion has changed. I'm not the tough guy I'd always pictured myself as, and it took a beating from a kid stuck in a suit of armor for me to see it. He and his brother showed me the power of the heart, and I will never forget that.

My story starts in a dank, rundown bar surrounded by the lowlifes I'd considered my makeshift family.

Greed had captured a tin can with the soul of some kid I'd never met before tied inside with alchemy. I'd never really known much of alchemy, didn't care for it all that much after the incident which resulted in turning me into some half-animal freak, but supposedly my idol thought he could learn the secrets of immortality through studying him.

If that's what Greed believed, I'd back him 100 percent.

The kid, Alphonse, hadn't been able to remember anything about human transmutation, only his brother could give us that kind of information.

His teacher had busted through our doors single-handedly in search of her student. Gotta say, she sure was a whirlwind!

After that, she'd gone to find the kid's brother on Al's request, and he came all right.

Too bad for us, we didn't expect the kid's brother to have such dangerous people following him.

* * *

The Devil's Nest felt crowded with all the new military arrivals. His sensitive nose was clouded with the stench of blood and gunpowder. Blood from his friends and fellow chimera; gunpowder from the shots of the soldiers as they killed his family. The intensity of the smell nearly doubled him over, but he had to remain strong. Greed and the others were counting on him and the tin can, Alphonse, to keep Martel safe.

"Open up, dammit! Loa, Dorchet! I can't stand by and let my friends die! Please!"

"I...I can't! I can't let you out of here!"

Grabbing Al's metal hand, Brandon rushed through the sewer below the bar dragging him along. They needed to get out of there as fast as possible. His instincts were telling him that there was something dangerous following them. Something not human.

"Hurry up! You're slowing us down! I won't let **him** catch us."

"I can't help it! Martel keeps trying to slow my movements!"

It was true. The snake chimera had her arms and legs outstretched inside of his armor in an attempt to take control. Her efforts slowed the group to a slow jog.

"I won't abandon them! Take me back!"

"It's too late, Martel. They're dead. I can smell it."

Suddenly, the trio came to an abrupt stop. Her efforts to take over Al's movements had intensified at hearing the news.

"I can't move! She won't let me!"

"You're lying!"

With all of the strength bestowed upon him by his animal half, Brandon pushed the metal armor into motion again.

"We need to keep moving. Greed wanted you to live, Martel, and dammit, I'm going to make sure that you do!"

Al's big hand wrapped around his neck and squeezed hard.

"I made a promise to him."

Brandon could see Martel's intense glare through the opening just below Al's metal helmet, and he matched it with one of his own.

"So did I."

"Um . . . can we get moving again? I think I hear someone coming."

His panther ears pricked up and sure enough, he heard the telltale signs of footsteps drawing nearer at a quick pace.

"Dammit! Al, I need you to hurry! Get out of here as quick as you can, and don't let Martel come back. Don't let her come back."

He looked into the glowing depths of Al's artificial eyes with a look of desperation. This kid was his last hope of keeping his promise to Greed to keep Martel safe. He wasn't going to disappoint the homonculus. The man had saved his life and given him a home just like all the other chimeras.

"But what about you, you need . . . "

"Just do this for me, would ya?"

"No, Vale! Not you too! I'm begging you! Let me out of here!"

"Hmm. It seems there's only a few more chimeras left to deal with."

Standing before them now was Fuhrer President King Bradley himself wielding his deadly swords. Brandon pushed the suit of armor toward their only escape down the sewer.

"Go now!"

"I'll keep her safe, I promise!"

Brandon listened to the clanking of the metal feet as the complete stranger he'd entrusted took off with Martel.

"You're one of the last pieces of trash in this dump for me to eliminate. I hope you're prepared to die."

The man rushed forward like lightening, and it was all Brandon could do to lean back in time. The blade barely grazed his cheek.

"Hn. That's _if_ you can kill me, Bradley. I've heard of your skills, but I'm not just some weak human. I can beat you, old man! I have promises to keep!"

He leaned back even further into a back flip and attempted to kick the President with his feet, but the man was just too fast.

Or was he too _slow_?

"Promises you won't be able to keep. I'll make sure of that."

He grit his teeth in anger as he barely missed another attempt by Bradley to sever his head off, but then he did something that Brandon wasn't expecting. He reached up to his eye patch and tore it from his face.

"What the hell?!"

Brandon faltered in his movements as the familiar ouroboros tattoo, the mark of a homonculus, on the President's eye came into view.

With a speed faster than comprehension, faster than even his panther instincts could follow, and faster than any normal human should possess, Bradley was standing directly infront of the chimera with his sword thrust clean through his abdomen.

"I'm not a weak human either. I'll be sure to make her death as quick as yours."

Pain was easy. It was something he'd felt before and could deal with, but the overwhelming sadness which took hold of him was harder to ignore.

Was he sad that he was dying and Martel, whom he'd sworn to Greed to protect, was going to share the same fate soon as well?

What did it matter anyway? He was about to die. Nothing mattered anymore.

* * *

Brandon groaned and rolled over in pain. His senses slowly began to try to piece together where he was and why he was in so much pain.

He'd been in the Devil's Nest lazily watching Greed kick the crap out of some short blonde kid when . . . the military had shown up!

It all came back to him as his foggy mind began to clear. His ears perked listening for any signs of battle. Not a sound could be heard but the rushing sewage water beside him, the occasional squeak from a rat, and his own labored breathing.

Bradley's sword had pierced through his chest so quickly, so _fiercely_.

The President was a homonculus like Greed! His inhuman speed and tattoo were proof enough of that. To think that one of **them** had been leading the country for so long. He wondered if anyone else knew of this.

Another worrying thought struck him. A homonculus was chasing after Martel and that Al kid. They didn't stand a chance.

Greed had asked him to protect Martel, and he had failed. She was probably dead or dying at this very moment.

Speaking of which, shouldn't he be doing the same? The President _had_ shish-kabobbed him with his sword.

He'd . . . survived the attack somehow?

There was still hope for Martel! He needed to go to her now and see if Al had somehow fended him off.

__

"I'm not a weak human either. I'll be sure to make her death as quick as yours."

"Greed, it wasn't supposed to end like this! I was supposed to keep her safe!"

Brandon attempted to raise himself from the ground and rush off after his last family member, but his wounds held him up. He wobbled uneasily on shaky knees as he made his way down the darkened sewers below Dublith.

"Dammit! I'm a chimera! I'm supposed to be better than this! Why is it that when I need this curse the most, I can't even use it?!"

His tired and aching muscles cramped and refused to cooperate. His head felt light weighted and heavy at the same time from blood lose. If he didn't get out of the sewer soon and seek medical attention, he'd die.

Even if he did miraculously drag his sorry ass to the outside, a hospital was the last place he could go for help. With his panther qualities such as his obvious ears and tail, they'd probably want to dissect him instead of save him.

Brandon's thoughts took a darker turn as he realized his chances of survival.

Martel was probably dead. Greed was missing in action. His family was massacred.

He was helpless.

Worthless.

__

Pathetic

.

He let out one last pityingly weak cry before blacking out again.

"I don't want to die!"

* * *

It would have been so much easier if Bradley hadn't shown up, the man running the whole country of Amestris and secret homonculus.

I'd nearly died that day because of him.

After being saved by a kind, elderly lady who had inspected the bar in curiosity after the military took their leave, I vowed to never lose another battle again.

Greed would probably have been so disappointed in me.

I had shown such weakness.

My reasons for vowing such a thing were hardly selfless.

* * *

"Are you sure you're well enough to be working so hard? Your wounds were quite deep, young man."

An old woman stood in front of a boiling pot as she smiled politely at her house guest. Brandon shuffled around the kitchen setting the table.

"I can't just lie around in bed to heal. I need to keep moving. It's in my nature."

"Ah, yes. Those ears and tail aren't exactly fashion statements, are they?"

Brandon was shocked beyond belief. His ears flattened against his head defensively.

"You knew these were real, and yet you still helped me? Why? Most people think I'm some kid with a weird fetish for wearing cat ears. Usually I have them covered up anyway."

The two sat together at the dinner table as she passed out some wonderful smelling spaghetti.

"Don't worry. I covered them again before I asked a nice young fellow to help me get you back to my mansion. As for the reason how I knew, I know a person who dabbles in alchemy. She's a good friend of mine really. And . . . I know that such terrible things can arise from using that science such as your predicament. She pays the price to this very day from using it incorrectly herself. I can't possibly hold something like that over you. I believe that you are just as human as I am myself."

"Tch. You use the term too loosely."

She smiled fondly at the young man sitting beside her and reached over to ruffle his black hair as a grandmother would her grandson.

"I know some who would agree with me. Besides . . . a lonely old lady such as myself isn't going to complain about the company she gets. Now eat up before it gets cold."

* * *

When I think back on these memories, I feel a mixed reaction. If you knew why, it would ruin the whole story so I'll save that for later. Suffice it to say that thinking back on those moments leaves me with regrets, and for good reason, but it also leaves me with a bitter happiness.

That day, I'd learned that there were people who might accept me as I was.

That old lady had shown me such kindness as she nursed me back to health. Kindness which I hadn't felt from another since I was separated from my real family.

But sadly it wasn't to last.

She would return to my life later on, and not in the way one would expect.

* * *

**A/N: **Well, there's the beginning to a hopefully long and prosperous fanfic. Anyone who takes the time to read this, thanks! Please leave me a review! I take any and all, but I prefer constructive criticism on what's good and what's not so good. I just hope that no one thinks of my OC as a Gary Sue. I've grown really fond of him during the long process of planning out his story. I'll strive to do what a lot of the other OC writers I've browsed through have failed to do. I'm trying to take a less common approach to the chimera OC since I know lots have tried it before.


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